Book Title: "Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves"
Author: Adam Penenberg
Online link: http://www.amazon.com/Viral-Loop-Facebook-Businesses-Themselves/dp/1401323499
Adam Penenberg's "Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves" outlines the history of Web 2.0 companies like MySpace, YouTube, eBay, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook and how the ingenious incorporation of a "viral expansion loop" led them to their success. The concept behind the "viral expansion loop" marketing strategy is utilization of the Web's inherent viral qualities to power the marketing and sale of a company's product.
Since the Web is a networking space that connects a host of Internet users in their "biological need to socialize", Penenberg argues that companies must be aware that viral success does not depend merely on the product(s) design and quality; rather, success depends, and can be powered by, how well online
users can
make use of their product(s). In this notion of a positive feedback loop, viral looping is thus a product of a website's online users as they enthusiastically disseminate ideas, info, opinions, web links, photos and videos across the web space. The more people in a given network space, the more content is produced on it; the more powerful the lure for those sitting on the sidelines, and the more value the company has. Networks in their "virality" will thus exhibit a multiplier effect --the larger the viral network, the faster it grows(61). While companies may be the creators of a specific webpage and online product, the true creators of the what the product's content and how it will be receipted comes from the audience.
Penenberg's acknowledgement and emphasis on the power of the online user is very similar to dana boyd's standpoints in her readings. In a 2009 Virtual Symposia panel, boyd stated that "Technology is a wonderful tool but it is not a panacea. It cannot solve all societal ills just by its mere existence. To have relevance and power, it must be leveraged by people to meet needs. This requires all of us to push past what we hope might happen and focus on introducing technology in a context that makes sense." Technology for both Penenberg and boyd is thus a more fluid and flexible structure, rather than a monolithic ideal. There is no single rule or method in which an online product can or should be launched, nor is there a single way in which online marketing must occur. The basis of a product's launching however does rely on its users. Facebook only works because friends are on it to share information with. EBay only works because there a person who wants to sell a product has buyers to sell to and vice versa. The same concept applies to all other sites in which a companies' notoriety and profit only works if there are people
working it.
At the heart of social networking technologies, both boyd and Penenberg touch on the "ego" factor --how Facebook, YouTube, and other online-profile sites grants individuals a type of celebrity fame. Whether it be through the publishing of a wall comment, photo, video or pop quiz result (ex. "what inner nationality are you?" or "what kind of children's book are you?"), such feeds of ourselves into an open web space simultaneously drives the life force the viral web takes up on its own --as our feeds are picked up and spread by the people we know and don't know.
Overall, this book is worth reading. The narrative structure Penenberg takes on definitely makes this an easy and entertaining read that makes abstract concepts like the "viral loop" more concrete. The dramatic details within a historical story can be a little overbearing at times as it takes pages and pages to get to a single point, but I like the fact that he supports his viral loop strategy thoroughly by using past and present contexts, and even highlights the dark side of viral looping such as online spammers and the dissemination of false information. Viral looping however, is not a new business model. Whereas we once relied on word of mouth or even "housewife" parties to spread a new product in a small town, viral looping today is simply more interactional, intentional, and flexible in medium, space, and time.
--Charli Lee.